Richelieu Rock

One of the most rich and beautiful underwater place around the world with plenty of colorful corals. High probability meet caranxs and cuttlefishes here, more rare whale sharks and manta rays.

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What you'll see (19)

Giant TrevallyCaranx ignobilisseen 19× near here

Varicose Wart SlugPhyllidia varicosaseen 13× near here

Ocellaris AnemonefishAmphiprion ocellarisseen 12× near here

White-eyed MorayGymnothorax thyrsoideusseen 11× near here

Java RabbitfishSiganus javusseen 11× near here

Phyllidiella nigraseen 10× near here

Indian LionfishPterois milesseen 10× near here

Twospot SnapperLutjanus biguttatusseen 10× near here

Longfin BatfishPlatax teiraseen 9× near here

Bluering AngelfishPomacanthus annularisseen 9× near here

Red Saddleback AnemonefishAmphiprion ephippiumseen 8× near here

Clark's AnemonefishAmphiprion clarkiiseen 8× near here

Banded Sea UrchinEchinothrix calamarisseen 7× near here

Giant MorayGymnothorax javanicusseen 7× near here

Skunk AnemonefishAmphiprion akallopisosseen 7× near here

Tiger Egg CowryCuspivolva tigrisseen 7× near here

Yellow BoxfishOstracion cubicumseen 6× near here

Orangestripe TriggerfishBalistapus undulatusseen 6× near here

Rainbow RunnerElagatis bipinnulataseen 6× near here

Planning a trip

4–6 days

worth going for

Flight, then a boat or domestic hop.

1,098km from Singapore — about 12h each way, so two of those days are travel. 6 dive sites within 25km.

When people dive it

Busiest Feb, Mar, Dec · almost nobody dives it May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct.

From 3,211 logged sightings — when divers are in the water, which is not quite the same as when visibility is best.

Dive Crew is a dive group from Singapore. Members plan trips here, log their dives, and share their photos of each site.

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Monsoon

Closed

Closed in October.

The Similans, Surin and Richelieu Rock. A hard season with a hard edge: the national parks close by decree, not by judgement.

Closed 16 May to 15 October

Mu Ko Similan and Mu Ko Surin national parks close to all visitors for the monsoon — a legal closure, so no operator can take you whatever the sea looks like. Richelieu Rock sits inside Surin and closes with it. The inshore sites around Phuket and Phi Phi stay open in reduced conditions.

Southwest monsoon

Wind and swell straight off the Bay of Bengal onto an unprotected archipelago. The liveaboards relocate for the season.

The year here

JFMAMJJASOND

Best here: December, January, February, March, April.

Andaman Sea — Thailand and Myanmar. Written by hand from how the season actually runs, calibrated against what the boats do, since a season that disagrees with the operators is wrong however good the meteorology behind it. It describes most years, not this one: the forecast above is what knows about next week.

Moon and tides

Waning gibbous

71% lit · day 20 of the lunar month

Neap tides

Neap tides — the smallest range of the month, so the weakest currents. Easy conditions and usually the clearest water, though a drift site may barely drift.

New 10 Oct Full 26 Oct

Phase computed here, not fetched. This is the spring/neap cycle, which sets how hard the water moves — not a tide table: no free source publishes high and low water for Southeast Asian reefs, and the range peaks a day or two after the moon does, by an amount that varies with the coast. For times on the day, ask the operator.

Getting there

~6h 24m

door to water, each way · 4 legs

FlightRanong (UNN)~3h 57mFlight time plus the airports at both ends. A connection adds to it.Find flights →
Transferthe jetty~30 minThe short way to the Surin islands, and the crossing point for the Mergui archipelago.Directions →
Ferrythe crossing~1h 27mAt this distance the last stretch is a scheduled crossing rather than a dive boat, so book it before the flight — a missed sailing usually costs a day. Which crossing it is has been worked out from the distance and not from a timetable; ask the operator.
Dive boatRichelieu Rock~30 minThen the dive boat out from the island.

📍 Richelieu Rock on Google Maps 🧭 Route from Ranong

Times marked ~ are estimated from straight-line distance and will be roughly right at best. The road legs are the ones Google Maps answers properly; it will not plan the ferry or the dive boat at all. A dive site's coordinates put a pin in open water, so the map link drops you on the site, not on a jetty.

Details

Country: Thailand
Marks: 9°21.804'N 98°1.324'E
Position: 9.3634, 98.0221

Where it is

Loading the map…

Nearby

Sightings and photographs from iNaturalist contributors, research-grade records within 6km, under Creative Commons licences. Counts are what divers and snorkellers have bothered to log — a common fish with few records is common all the same.